Category Archives: Zeitgeist Movement

Deutsche Welle: April 22 wasEarth Dayand theMarch for Science, and one week later on April 29 the People's ClimateMarchmarks100 days of the Trump administration. Have these events taken on added meaning this year?

Bill McKibben: I think they have taken on different meaning. The plan was to go march, no matter who was president at the end of April - but if it was Hillary Clinton, it would be a real effort to get her to do the things she promised to do.

In the case of Trump, it's part of this large resistance that's been forming around so many issues, and a real reminder that people will not idly sit by and let their future be completely compromised. So it will have a very different flavor than I think we thought it would six to eight months ago.

Do you think proposed budget cuts to scientists' work and the changes at the Environmental Protection Agency will mobilize more scientists, and get them involved in politics?

Bill McKibben says people power is a potent force

Yes, I think scientists are becoming more politically engaged. I think they're beginning to understand they have no choice.

It's not an ideal situation. In a rational world, we'd let scientists do their work, and then when they offer explicit warnings as they did 20 years ago around climate change, the rest of our political system would go to work acting on those warnings. But as we've all learned, that's not necessarily what happens. Power, money and influence can get in the way and that's, I think, why scientists are now mobilizing.

Trump focuses a lot on jobs, the economy and security. Do you think the environmental movement has been successful at appealing to his constituency? What needs to change in its "sales pitch" to enable the movement to compete for public opinion?

I think action on climate change is more popular than Donald Trump at this point. But that has as much to do with Trump's unpopularity as anything else. I think it's important for the environmental movement to keep stressing the upside to big change.

Jeff Merkley, the senator from Oregon, and Senator[Bernie]Sanders, themost popular politician in America, are introducing a bill at the end of the month that calls for 100percent clean energy by 2050. I think that will be the real rallying cry - and part of that rallying cry will be about the 4 or 5 million jobs that would get created along the way.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets for the last People's Climate March, in New York in 2014

Could a slowdown ofUS action on climate change result in more Americans taking the government to court over climate change?

There's a couple of important court cases already working their way through, especially this case from what's called Our Children's Trust. Court action takes a long time and in the end, to a large degree, courts are moved when politics moves. The job of the environmental movement is to continue to try and shift the zeitgeist around climate change in a powerful direction.

You've been heavily involved in protests against the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines for the past several years. What are you planning to do now that Keystone has been formally approved?

The Keystone Pipeline's been formally approved by the State Department and the White House, but it's got some hoops to jump through yet, mostly in states like Nebraskawhere there's not even a route approved for this thing - and there's a lot of organizing and anger.

It also has some financial hoops to jump through - it's not as if the price of oil is doing any favors to people in the tar sands where that pipeline begins. So I don't think we've seen the end of that story yet.

The Keystone XL Pipeline has been the target of protest - which hasn't ended since Trump approved the pipeline

Trump's climate position has so many implications. Where do you predict the biggest resistance will come from?

I think that you're seeing resistance from smart scientists and from people in frontline communities who deal with the effects of climate change already. I think the thing Trump needs to fear most is the awakening of all those normal people in the middle who don't normally think that much about politics, but know enough about the future to know that what we're doing is not safe, is not smart, and is putting their children at risk. And that's a potent force, once awakened.

I assume you'll be out protesting this weekend - what do you hope to see when you're out there?

I hope to see a lot of people!

Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist. In 2014, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the "alternative Nobel." He is a founder of350.org, a grassroots climate movement thathas organized thousands of rallies around the world.

Theinterview was conducted byCharlotta Lomas.

Read the rest here:

Bill McKibben: Trump should fear a people's awakening - Deutsche Welle

An exotic program of two twentieth-century classics.

Yu Longconductor via MSO.

Long Yu, artistic director and chief conductor of the China Philharmonic and music director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, is perhaps one of the most eminent directors of Western classical music in Asia. His direction of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night was a dignified occasion featuring two major works from the 20th Century: Ravels Daphnis et Chlo: Suite No 2 (one of Sergei Diaghilevs Ballets Russes Paris commissions completed in 1912) paired with Carl Orffs Carmina Burana (composed between 1935 and 1936).

The opening movement of the Ravel, Daybreak, struck me on this occasion as being one of the most ecstatic musical depictions of a sunrise in the repertoire. Scored for vast orchestra and wordless chorus, Daphnis et Chlo was originally a ballet. Two orchestral Suites, the second of which is often performed, were extracted by the composer.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus is sounding fine and performed both works well thanks to guest chorus master, Marilyn Phillips. Blend overall was good, though on occasion the chorus felt underpowered in the Ravel perhaps owing to its threefold separated proximity to the orchestra. I wondered if having the chorus seated was a wise decision. While the orchestra generally performed well under Yu, I yearned for more to be imagined and expressed from the woodwind solos. Ravels orchestration may be seen as chamber music on a large scale requiring intensely vivid personality and verve.

Although Orffs Carmina Burana was one of the most popular works of the 20th century, it is now hardly ever performed. On this occasion I was struck by how unusual this hybrid flower is, with connections to plainchant, Renaissance music through to Hollywood and with a strong flavour from Stravinsky, particularly from his ballet Les noces. The text is a collection of secular medieval poetry in Latin, Old French and Middle High German, discovered in the Bavarian abbey of Benediktbeurn in 1803. It describes the apparent futility of life symbolised as an ever rotating wheel where Fate randomly dethrones the exalted at whim, along the way providing various diversions of elation and distraction including sex and drink.

I concur with Alex Ross when he describes Orffs setting of 23 of the 320 poems as primitive unreflective enthusiasm. The opening movement O Fortuna has been used as signature music for many advertisements from aftershave to coffee. Indeed, one continues to hear imitations of this opening rapturous movement in film, television and even as background music to video games. The work was intended as a cantata with dance and sets and it would be interesting to see it staged. But in this concert form, even with its clean-cut and energetic Stravinskyan percussive writing, it seemed to me vulgar, simplistic and in particular, irritatingly repetitive. The work was to become Orffs one great success when, following its first performance in 1937, it appealed to the Zeitgeist of Nazi Germany, perhaps owing to its direct musical rhetoric and secular egalitarian Socialist resonance.

I wondered why Orff wrote such extreme ranges for his soloists. Tenor John Longmuir was excellent in his brief appearance as an unfortunate charred swan nostalgic for his former white beauty, singing almost all of the aria in forthright chest voice. Distinguished baritone Warwick Fyfe, however, struggled valiantly with much of his unsingable material set absurdly high for his voice type, particularly in Dies, nox et omnia. His Estuans interius however delighted for its suavity. I wondered if his awkwardness in attempting to realise the music was somehow Orffs intent and if so why. Eva Kong was superb throughout, though I wondered if the part would be better suited to a slightly fuller, more lyrical voice. The performance was distinguished by the appearance of twenty choristers from the National Boys Choir of Australia singing their parts from memory.

The work ends as it began with the rousing chorus O Fortuna (How horrid Life: / Now it blocks/ And now gives way/ A vicious mental game to play/ Misery and potency melt away/ Like ice.)

Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5

MSO Carmina Burana

Eva Kong, soprano

John Longmuir, tenor

Warwick Fyfe, baritone

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Marilyn Phillips, Guest Chorus Master

National Boys Choir of Australia

Peter Casey, National Boys Choir Chorus Master

Presented by Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne

Saturday, 22 April, 2017

8pm

First published on Thursday 27 April, 2017

Read more here:

Carmina Burana - ArtsHub (subscription)

THE recent upsurge in mass protests is to be represented in a new show in the nations capital.

The Peoples Story Museum in Edinburgh has received a flurry of donations following curators calls for placards, banners and photos relating to the recent Brexit and Trump marches in Edinburgh to be made available for donation.

It has received more than 30 offers and many of the pledged items are now in the care of the Museum of Edinburgh.

These placards will feature in the citys upcoming summer exhibition, Edinburgh Alphabet: An A-Z of the Citys Collection which will be free to visit and opens at the City Art Centre on May 19.

This exhibition will feature an alphabet of themes and the placards and signs will fall under the letter Z for Zeitgeist.

The display will see items from the councils different museums and the art centre, as well as pieces from storage and finds by the citys archaeology service.

Thousands of people have marched on the streets of Scotlands cities in recent years from the independence referendum to the Brexit vote and beyond.

Gillian Findlay, the curatorial and engagement manager for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: Over the last year or so, there have been a number of mass protests across the UK in response to the wave of political change and the Scottish capital has been no different.

As the citys museums service, we believe it is important to record how the people of Edinburgh respond to these national and international events.

We began with a film called Recording the Referendum back in 2014 which documented the build-up to Scotlands independence referendum.

More recently, we have been collecting materials from protests about the European Referendum and the Presidential election in the United States.

We were keen to encourage donations and loans from people on both sides of the political debate. The majority has been from those who have protested about political outcomes at home and abroad.

She added: Contemporary collecting is something most museums do to make sure modern history is recorded.

Its actually a part of our role that isnt always recognised.

Often people believe that museums are all about the protection and stories of very old items, but contemporary collecting is a very important part of what we do.

Councillor Richard Lewis, the citys culture convener, added: Our museum collection includes protest material of national and international significance.

There are banners in support of political reform, trade unions and the anti-apartheid movement.

No matter what your political stance, protests of this scale will always have historical significance.

In years to come, these items will be considered an important part of the people of Edinburghs past and Scotlands political protest history.

They will feature in Edinburgh Alphabet: An A-Z of the Citys Collection a free exhibition opening at the City Art Centre on May 19.

Councillor Lewis added: This display will be one of the councils most ambitious museum and gallery projects to date and will see artefacts and artworks drawn from all corners of the collection into an alphabetised display.

See the rest here:

Signs of the times as museum gathers placards from recent protests - Herald Scotland

BBC News

Macron moves France into uncharted waters BBC News Here was a man who, at 39, had the gall to walk out of government - turning his back on his protector, President Franois Hollande - and set up his own political "movement". He had no ... And yet somehow Emmanuel Macron read the zeitgeist. He found an ... Brexit and the Future of EuropeInternational Affairs Review The Le Pen-Macron Cage Match BeginsVanity Fair French presidential election: Macron and Le Pen projected to reach run-offNew Statesman all 4,886 news articles »

Read the rest here:

Macron moves France into uncharted waters - BBC News

WASHINGTON - Just hours after the Washington March for Science dispersed, organizers sent an email to demonstrators with the subject line, "What's next?"

"Our movement is just starting," the message read. It went on to urge marchers to take part in a "week of action," a set of coordinated activities that range from signing an environmental voting pledge to participating in a citizen science project. They will provide postcards for participants to send to their political leaders and a calendar of events recommended by the march's partner groups.

The march website was also overhauled Saturday night to include a new page on the organization's vision for the future. The details are not fully fleshed out (and the page still included a few typos Sunday afternoon), but organizers say they aim to build a new science advocacy network and establish programs to better engage the public with science.

"We intend to symbolically keep marching," said national co-chair Valerie Aquino. "I would love for the March for Science to continue growing into a global movement."

That goal will require a sea change in how scientists think about outreach. But after the success of the march, which turned out tens of thousands of demonstrators in more than 600 cities, organizers think it could happen.

This public engagement is unprecedented for the scientific community. Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, noted before the march that his colleagues tend to be wary about advocacy. Some worry that such efforts might make their research appear less objective; many simply haven't seen it as their job to make sure their work is available and understood outside of academic circles.

But in the wake of President Trump's election, and in the face of policy changes and proposed budget cuts that threatened several areas of research, the community is galvanized.

"The level of anxiety about the state of science, its place in our society and government, and whether the conditions under which science can thrive are being maintained and defended ... anxiety about that has led people to go into the public square," Holt told reporters.

Organizers insisted that the March for Science was political, but not partisan. Their stated goal was not to condemn the Trump administration - though there were plenty of jabs at the president during the day's events - but to emphasize the importance of science in society.

Aquino, an anthropologist who has had projects canceled because of a lack of public funding, said scientists don't always take responsibility for making the case for their work. But she thinks the march might signal a change in that perspective.

"I really hope that there is a fundamental shift in the zeitgeist of the scientific community from 'my job is done when I produce the data and I'm going to leave it at someone else's doorstep,' to 'Science isn't finished until you communicate it, and not just in a journal that most people don't have access to,'" she said.

Brenda Ekwurzel, the director of climate science at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that she's been trying to convey this message for years. Working in climate research, it was clear to her that scientists needed to be better at outreach if they were ever going to convince the public to take steps against climate change, she said - that's why she left academia for advocacy in 2005. But most of her colleagues didn't follow suit; "They thought the data would speak for itself."

On Saturday, taking in the thousands of sodden marchers chanting "Ho ho, hey hey, I support the EPA," Ekwurzel said "I cannot believe I am surrounded by so many scientists."

"I'm surprised at how energized they are. That means to me they really see there's a threat."

Fellow marcher Aileen Frayna, who works for a genetic diagnostics company in Germantown, Md., showed up dressed in a Ms. Frizzle costume she made herself. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been to a protest, let alone one this big.

"I was previously very passive," Frayna said. She would sometimes fail to vote in local elections; she hasn't been involved in science outreach efforts.

But events since the election have been "a smack in the face." The geneticist is now looking into political groups like 314 Action, which aims to get more scientists elected to public office. Frayna doesn't think she's cut out for a political career, but she said she might try to volunteer. She's also interested in efforts to increase representation of women and minorities in STEM; as a Filipina woman, she feels it's especially important to represent her community.

"After November, I know I need to participate in things like this," Frayna said. "I can't just sit idly by."

View post:

Tens of thousands marched for science. Now what? - Stillwater News Press

Christian Schneider 10:05 a.m. ET April 24, 2017

Christian Schneider(Photo: File)

Anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to listen to pop songstress Katy Perry's recentsong"Chained to the Rhythm" is missing one ofthe most awfulpieces of music to ever be inflicted upon the American public.

By the time you hear Perry warble, "So comfortable, we live in a bubble, a bubble / So comfortable, we cannot see the trouble, the trouble," your ears will have filed for divorce.

Yet upon its release, this aural Antietam receivedpositive reviewsin large part because it reflected Perry's new "political activism." (Indeed, this must be truefor, on her Twitterprofile, Perry describes herself as anactivist.)

"Perrys fed up with the complacency of the capitalist entertainment culture that she has thrived off," chirped The Atlantic, comparing the song's theme to that of Sinclair Lewis' classic political novel "Babbitt."

But rather than some foundational political anthem, Perry's song is simply a series of microwaved liberal bromides repackaged and sold back to liberals. It's a tried-and-true formula: Masquerade lefty culture as "consciousness," and you make your terrible art critic-proof.

Recently, liberals and conservatives alike roundly mocked anInternet adproduced by Pepsi that tried to cash in on today's left-wing protest culture. In the ad, which stars the inexplicably famous Kendall Jenner, a multicultural group of young, thin demonstrators march through city streets demanding something.

Wielding peace signs and offers to "join the conversation," the marchers stare down a line of menacing police officers until Jenner offers a cop a Pepsi, at which point he seems to say to himself, "this 50-cent carbonated beverage has rendered my crowd control manual obsolete, and I, therefore, willnot tear gas these morons."

Liberals recoiled at the ad, accusing it of stealing imagery from the Black Lives Matter movement and minimizing the issue of police brutality. Pepsiapologizedand "pulled" the ad, whatever that means it is still readily available online and also apologized to Jenner.

But Pepsi's only crime is making the lame repurposing of progressivism so nakedly obvious.

Corporations always try to capture the zeitgeist and monetize it; ask any child of the "grunge" era who began to see ripped jeans and large flannel shirts in J.C. Penney catalogs. And when political issues bubble up, they take their place next to the Geico gecko and the Most Interesting Man in the World as tools to move product.

Take, for example, Audi's embarrassingSuper Bowl adthis year, which tried to tangentially relate selling cars to women being paid less in the workplace. In the spot, a father watches his daughter compete in a soapbox derby-type race, wondering whether he should have to tell her that no matter her qualifications, "she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets." The ad ends by saying Audi of America is "committed to equal pay for equal work."

Evidently, no members of Audi'sall-maleBoard of Management are aware that the "wage gap" is completenonsense, having been debunked byscoresoffact-checkers. While there is a disparity in pay among men and women, it is almost entirely the result of different choices the genders make in pursuit of their careers. Control for those factors and the gap all but disappears.

Of course, progressives didn't protest this pandering, as it aided their larger cause. They were conveniently unconcerned that a corporation was stealing their platform to sell cars Audi furthered the narrative, so they ate it up.

All the Hillary Clinton voters who railed against corporations having political free speech rights suddenly disappeared.

Democrats should be more concerned about the cynicism that propels such ads; these companies are taking caricatures of liberals and trying to get youngconsumers to buy them, just like any other commodity.

The Pepsi ad went too far because the caricature was too broad,but it's the same idea that has saturated advertising for decades:"Lefty activism is hot, so let's try to sell it to younger people who don't know better!"

Naturally, there's nothing wrong with using free-market capitalism to trick liberals into buying products. Anyone who bought a Coke in 1971 because ahippie sang them a nice songwas helping the economy and creating jobs.

But the left should realize these ads are meant to trigger the same basic response in them that videos of Big Macs are supposed to trigger in hungry people. Just don't be surprised when Mayor McCheese starts wearing a pink knit hat.

You can contact Christian Schneider at cschneider@jrn.com.

Read or Share this story: http://press.sn/2pdaSip

View original post here:

Liberal causes become selling points, literally - Press & Sun-Bulletin

21 Apr 2017, 1:41 a.m.

A common feature in these ballots across Britain and France? Immigration.

Election-weary Britons head to the polls on June 8. The French will vote this weekend. Americans only recently concluded their distended democratic ritual. Different countries, different systems, different voters. A common theme? Immigration.

Donald Trump pulled off his unlikely victory by invoking a dichotomy: Americans versus others. The antediluvian promise to make America great again was pitched at a demoralised working class, deprived of a social safety net and denied real wage growth for decades.

It cleverly ignored the yawning gulf between a privileged, tax-astute billionaire and his new electoral quarry by excavating an even bigger hole in which immigration was conflated with national security, free trade with job losses, globalism with US decline.

In France, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front exploits similar tensions by branding asylum seekers "illegal". "They have no reason to stay in France" Le Pen says blithely because "these people broke the law the minute they set foot on French soil".

Theresa May's snap British poll is an aftershock of last year's stunning Brexit quake when ordinary Brits ignored elite opinion to cut ties with Europe. Their disaffection derived substantially from the EU's free movement rules that had foreign labour transforming the British economy in ways that suited capital but left workers feeling worse off.

Le Pen, fanning the same anxieties, frames French citizenship as "either inherited or merited", which may be reasonable coming from a more moderate voice. Most, however, see it as the dog-whistle it is: extremism masquerading as common sense. It is typical of the new xenophobia that parades as an antidote to global uncertainty yet poses an existential threat to French cohesion, as well as European stability.

Against these trends, Turnbull's deification of "Australian citizenship" reflects Australia's more sober debate.

It locates Australian identity as a set of beliefs under the rubric of multiple differences: "We're not defined by race or religion or culture, as many other nations are. We're defined by commitment to common values, political values, the rule of law, democracy, freedom, mutual respect, equality for men and women. These fundamental values are what make us Australian."

Unsurprisingly, Turnbull's new muscularity on Aussie "values", which, rhetorically at least, sits more readily with his predecessor, Tony Abbott, has fuelled plenty of suspicion. Cynical observers will view it as a Clayton's boat people fight, the one you engender once the boats have actually stopped being an issue.

Doubtless an embattled prime minister would welcome any electoral dividend and the extra protection within his own party room. But that does not of itself, make the proposed changes wrong.

Follow us on Facebook

The story Citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Continue reading here:

Citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist - Daily Advertiser

Election-weary Britons head to the polls on June 8. The French will vote this weekend. Americans only recently concluded their distended democratic ritual. Different countries, different systems, different voters. A common theme? Immigration.

Donald Trump pulled off his unlikely victory by invoking a dichotomy: Americans versus others. The antediluvian promise to make America great again was pitched at a demoralised working class, deprived of a social safety net and denied real wage growth for decades.

Play Video Don't Play

Play Video Don't Play

Previous slide Next slide

Australia is toughening up its citizenship test. How does it compare overseas?

Play Video Don't Play

Morgan Huxley's ex girlfriend, Jessica Hall reads out a statement after his killer, Jack Kelsall was found guilty of murder.

Play Video Don't Play

McGrath Breast Care Nurse, Sam Burns, discusses how the loss of her mother at a young age inspired her to help others with breast cancer. Video: McGrath Foundation.

Play Video Don't Play

Immigration is a rally point for prime ministers past and present. As Malcolm Turnbull shifts to the right on the issue, what did his predescessors do? And why did they do it?

Play Video Don't Play

The US online retail behemoth confirmed Thursday it will establish the first of many fulfillment centres in Australia, in a move that's sure to disrupt the local market.

Play Video Don't Play

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton offered a new account of recent Manus rampage in an interview on Sky News.

Play Video Don't Play

In a Facebook live video, South Sudanese-born model Adau Mornyang tearfully recounts an alleged rape she suffered in Adelaide six years ago.

Australia is toughening up its citizenship test. How does it compare overseas?

It cleverly ignored the yawning gulf between a privileged, tax-astute billionaire and his new electoral quarry by excavating an even bigger hole in which immigration was conflated with national security, free trade with job losses, globalism with US decline.

In France, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front exploits similar tensions by branding asylum seekers "illegal". "They have no reason to stay in France" Le Pen says blithely because "these people broke the law the minute they set foot on French soil".

Theresa May's snap British poll is an aftershock of last year's stunning Brexit quake when ordinary Brits ignored elite opinion to cut ties with Europe. Their disaffection derived substantially from the EU's free movement rules that had foreign labour transforming the British economy in ways that suited capital but left workers feeling worse off.

Le Pen, fanning the same anxieties, frames French citizenship as "either inherited or merited", which may be reasonable coming from a more moderate voice. Most, however, see it as the dog-whistle it is: extremism masquerading as common sense. It is typical of the new xenophobia that parades as an antidote to global uncertainty yet poses an existential threat to French cohesion, as well as European stability.

Against these trends, Turnbull's deification of "Australian citizenship" reflects Australia's more sober debate.

It locates Australian identity as a set of beliefs under the rubric of multiple differences: "We're not defined by race or religion or culture, as many other nations are. We're defined by commitment to common values, political values, the rule of law, democracy, freedom, mutual respect, equality for men and women. These fundamental values are what make us Australian."

Unsurprisingly, Turnbull's new muscularity on Aussie "values", which, rhetorically at least, sits more readily with his predecessor, Tony Abbott, has fuelled plenty of suspicion. Cynical observers will view it as a Clayton's boat people fight, the one you engender once the boats have actually stopped being an issue.

Doubtless an embattled prime minister would welcome any electoral dividend and the extra protection within his own party room. But that does not of itself, make the proposed changes wrong.

Follow us on Facebook

Read more here:

Turnbull's citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist - The Sydney Morning Herald

21 Apr 2017, 1:41 a.m.

A common feature in these ballots across Britain and France? Immigration.

Election-weary Britons head to the polls on June 8. The French will vote this weekend. Americans only recently concluded their distended democratic ritual. Different countries, different systems, different voters. A common theme? Immigration.

Donald Trump pulled off his unlikely victory by invoking a dichotomy: Americans versus others. The antediluvian promise to make America great again was pitched at a demoralised working class, deprived of a social safety net and denied real wage growth for decades.

It cleverly ignored the yawning gulf between a privileged, tax-astute billionaire and his new electoral quarry by excavating an even bigger hole in which immigration was conflated with national security, free trade with job losses, globalism with US decline.

In France, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front exploits similar tensions by branding asylum seekers "illegal". "They have no reason to stay in France" Le Pen says blithely because "these people broke the law the minute they set foot on French soil".

Theresa May's snap British poll is an aftershock of last year's stunning Brexit quake when ordinary Brits ignored elite opinion to cut ties with Europe. Their disaffection derived substantially from the EU's free movement rules that had foreign labour transforming the British economy in ways that suited capital but left workers feeling worse off.

Le Pen, fanning the same anxieties, frames French citizenship as "either inherited or merited", which may be reasonable coming from a more moderate voice. Most, however, see it as the dog-whistle it is: extremism masquerading as common sense. It is typical of the new xenophobia that parades as an antidote to global uncertainty yet poses an existential threat to French cohesion, as well as European stability.

Against these trends, Turnbull's deification of "Australian citizenship" reflects Australia's more sober debate.

It locates Australian identity as a set of beliefs under the rubric of multiple differences: "We're not defined by race or religion or culture, as many other nations are. We're defined by commitment to common values, political values, the rule of law, democracy, freedom, mutual respect, equality for men and women. These fundamental values are what make us Australian."

Unsurprisingly, Turnbull's new muscularity on Aussie "values", which, rhetorically at least, sits more readily with his predecessor, Tony Abbott, has fuelled plenty of suspicion. Cynical observers will view it as a Clayton's boat people fight, the one you engender once the boats have actually stopped being an issue.

Doubtless an embattled prime minister would welcome any electoral dividend and the extra protection within his own party room. But that does not of itself, make the proposed changes wrong.

Follow us on Facebook

The story Citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Read the original here:

Citizenship changes reflect the Trumpist zeitgeist - Illawarra Mercury

The knives are out for Steve Bannon. The national media is doing everything in its power to remove one of the major anchors of Donald TrumpDonald TrumpTrump lawyer: Protesters violated campaign's First Amendment right Why Dr. David Shulkin is exactly what the VA ordered. Montana special election candidates spar over gun rights MOREs political revolution. In many ways, Bannon is the glue that holds together the ideological and practical sides of the Trump administration. Losing him would be an enormous blow to the original goals of so many supporters.

Reports that Trump is distancing himself from Bannon has prompted an almost audible cheer from the press corps. Its a Biblical fall, says New York Magazine, showing him with a crown of thorns. Vanity Fair ushered in the phrase civil war as quickly as it could. CNBC pushed the pop culture angle and called in a Game of Thrones. Newsweek beat the Russia horse well past death (bonus points for their hyperbolic hyperlink). The Atlantic thinks that Trumpism will outlive Bannons tenure in the White House.

Bannon is not the finger on the pulse of the Trump political movement he embodies it. Trump needs Bannon, the nerve center of his ideological brain trust.

There are pragmatists in the White House advising President Trump, such as Reince Priebus and Jared Kushner. Both are measured men but they are not fire-breathing pit fighters. Frankly, if Trumps campaign had been staffed solely by the Kushners and the Priebuses of the world, he wouldnt have come anywhere near the GOP nomination, not to mention the White House. The Republican base, independents, and blue-collar Democrats had enough of pragmatic line-walkers who read well-crafted scripts during campaign stops. They wanted an authentic doer who could bring real change to Washington, D.C.

GOP lawmaker to Trump: Bannon is "a lynchpin" to an energized base https://t.co/IdJIEepDRQ pic.twitter.com/F4rhZPes1J

Bannon, in many ways, is Andrew Breitbarts ideological heir. Bannon rebuilt Breitbart.com after its founders tragic and untimely death in 2012. The new Breitbart was a zeitgeist for the political threads which would become the populist-right movement.

Bannon is not a neo-Confederate or a white nationalist he is an American nationalist and a populist. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The future White House chief strategist fought his way for everything he had, growing up in a working class family and serving in the military before becoming an investment banker. Such a path taught Bannon nearly every stage that the average American lives through.

Put simply, Bannon is Trumps tie to his base. The former Breitbart Executive Chairman became involved in Trumps campaign at one of its lowest points; at the time, Priebus was advising him to get out of the race.

But Bannon, with the help of Kellyanne Conway, helped Trump focus his message and speak about solutions to the issues that Americans care about most: immigration, healthcare, and the job market. By focusing on these critical issues in a bold and unapologetic manner, Trumps other scandals didnt matter no matter how much the media reported on them. In fact, it seemed like the more the media tried to take Trump down, the more it blew up in their faces.

Trump is still annoyed by Time cover with Bannon: report https://t.co/3PG4HV57NJ pic.twitter.com/hCImAubbun

Bannons experience at Breitbart, which has a massive and loyal right-wing audience, gave him a unique understanding of both the traditional and new media. This insight allowed the Trump campaign to run circles around the major outlets that were bent on taking him down. Take, for example, when the campaign told reporters that they were invited to film Trumps final debate prep before the second presidential debate. Journalists streamed into the room, the doors shut behind them and in paraded three women who claim they are victims of unwanted sexual advances or rape by Bill ClintonBill ClintonDon't kid yourself Trump, you need Steve Bannon more than ever Poll: Trump gets historically low approval ratings Trump can make government more efficient, but probably not smaller MORE.

The Trump campaign, with Bannons direction, had effectively tricked the media into covering Clintons alleged sex crimes. It was a beautiful moment for Trump supporters, who had become fed up with the flagrantly bias coverage of the campaign.

Perhaps most importantly, Bannon understands that Trumps unique qualities like his bold, brash, and politically incorrect communication style are what make him appealing to so many Americans. Trump is most effective when hes allowed to be, well, Trump. The traditional GOP mandarins, including Trumps former campaign manager Paul Manafort, never understood that. They wanted a more polished Mitt Romney with Trumps face.

Now that the elections over, Bannons not a spent cartridge hes just getting started. Many of the White Houses past and future moves are reliant on the one person foresighted enough with the fortitude to see them through.

The media wants Bannon gone. President Trump would do well not to do them any favors.

Kristin Tate is a conservative columnist and author of the book "Government Gone Wild: How D.C. Politicians Are Taking You For a Ride And What You Can Do About It." She was recently named one of NewsMax's "30 Most Influential Republicans Under 30."Follow her on Twitter @KristinBTate.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

Read more:

Don't kid yourself Trump, you need Steve Bannon more than ever - The Hill (blog)